Introduction, Clarification of Mutual Expectations, and The Manchus and the Han

The Last Emperor, dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987.

The Manchus and the Han

 

Manchu

Manchu and Chinese

The Words of the Emperor (documentry)



Why Modern Chinese Culture?

The rise of modern Chinese culture has impacted the contemporary world in significant ways. How did it all happen? What can we learn from it? What do we mean by "modern," "Chinese," and "culture"? Can we imagine a variety of "Chineseness" instead of a single, fixed notion of being "Chinese"?



Hong Kong Night (photo credit: http://www.beyond-secrets.com/)

Introduction to Modern Chinese Culture will help you approach these questions from a special angle of interpretation suggested by Chinese writers and intellectuals themselves. We will examine the role and self-conception of the writer in relation to the changing historical context of the modern Chinese world. We will be focusing on the relationship between arts and politics, between the intellectual and the people, and the artistic, the sexual, and the political aspects of modern Chinese intellectual life. Our goal is to develop critical thinking skills and to gain a deep knowledge of modern Chinese identity formations so as to better understand our own position in the contemporary world.